A celebration of 75 years of the Austin Sheerline and Princess
Seventy-five years ago, in March 1947, the first really new Austins were released at the Geneva Motor Show. They were the first Austins to have a Flying A on the bonnet.
Len Lord, the boss of Austin, drove a Bentley at the time and the story goes that he took the winged B off it, gave it to his chief stylist Dick Burzi to come up with something similar. The two new models were also the first to have an A in front of their horsepower number - in the case of the Sheerline, it was the A110 and the Princess the A120. They were followed by a plethora of A numbers - A40, A90, A30, A70, A50, A35, A55, A95, A60, A99 and A110 for the next twenty years.
The engine used was the ohv six cylinder 3,460 cc unit, first used in the trucks in 1939. With one Stromberg carburettor, the Sheerline gave out 110 bhp, while the Princess with twin Strombergs achieved 120 bhp. Very few of each were produced before the engine size was increased to 3995 cc, with Sheerline renamed the A125 and Princess A135. Sometimes called a ‘Poor Man’s Bentley' the Sheerline had attractive and graceful semi-razoredged styling with a tradtional grille flanked by massive free-standing P100 headlights. The Princess on the other hand was distinguished by a coachbuilt body with aluminium panels crafted by Vanden Plas, a coach-builder bought by Austin in 1946. The Sheerline was intended to be owner-driven, while the Princess was more to be chauffeur driven, with a touring limousine offered with a glass partition between front and rear seats. Both cars were beautifully trimmed in leather and plenty of wood in the dashboard and doors.
About 8000 Sheerlines were built along with 700 extended wheelbase limousines and 300 chassis available for hearses and ambulances Production ceased in 1953 and it was not replaced. 745 Princesses were produced until 1950 in its original state; a Mark II with altered styling ran till 1953 with 669 produced followed by the III with 302 built up to 1956. From 1956 they ran as the Austin Princess until 1959, when they were rebadged as Vanden Plas and they enjoyed a long run up to 1969 when they in turn were replaced by the big Daimler DS 420 Limousine.
The Sheerline’s UK price in 1950 was £1597 and the Princess touring limousine was £1981. The Sheerline was available in Australia and at £2077 in 1950, quite a few found their way onto sheep properties when the wool-prices soared as a result of the Korean War. The Princess was never listed but were available on order, the few that came here were usually used by large city councils to drive their mayors around on official duties. Handy, when your ratepayers were only charged half the price of a Rolls-Royce for a car which looked almost as expensive! As a guide, just over £2000 in late 1950 would buy you a Humber Pullman at £2244, a Packard at £2012, half a Bentley or nearly three A40s!
Sheerlines have been present at AOAs - Ken Gardner’s green example from NSW was at Ipswich in 2017 and the burgundy car belongs to the Thackray family in Western Australia and was at AOA in Perth in 2009.
